


A New Friend

by Beryll (Rynthjan)



Series: Sir Yaden [26]
Category: Original Work
Genre: Gen, demon, imp, p2, phoenix empire
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-10-21
Updated: 2015-10-21
Packaged: 2018-04-27 10:03:09
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,449
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5044078
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Rynthjan/pseuds/Beryll
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>When Sir Yaden returns from his latest mission, he has a very special gift for his daughter Roja</p>
            </blockquote>





	A New Friend

Roja stared at the tiny gear with a grim frown. It was shielded by a maze of wires, metal rods, more gears and transparent tubes and it was resisting all her efforts to reach it. Several criss-crossing rods made it impossible to reach it with any of her tools and her hands were too big to fit through either.

She had spent the whole morning trying to figure out why the huge mechanical scorpion had suddenly started running in a circle. Her father had brought it back from one of his missions and it was a favourite toy of hers.

At first she had been sure it had to be the sand from the beach which had collected inside it, but after a thorough cleaning there had been no change to its erratic behaviour.

So she had checked all parts of the steering mechanism and finally traced the problem back to this tiny gear. Probably it had been the sand which had turned it wrong. And now the scorpion constantly tried to run left which led to him running in a circle. She just needed to readjust the gear.

Whoever had originally built the scorpion must have had proper tools to reach it, but Roja didn't. Her hodgepodge of tools which she had scrounged and borrowed for her little workshop was nowhere near as professional as she would have needed.

Impatiently she tugged the strand of hair which had escaped her thick braid back behind her ear and then reconsidered her options.

Her brother Vian would easily reach the gear with his mental powers, but he sucked at delicate manipulations. It was more likely that he would tear it off and that was a risk Roja wasn't willing to take.

Her big sister Myriam would definitely have some trick up her sleeve to get it done, but she was a Phoenix Knight and surely had much more important things to do than fix her sister's toy scorpion. Roja would ask her help only as a very last resort.

"Hey, darling!"

With a delighted "Daddy!" Roja spun around, when she suddenly heard her father's voice from the door.

Her father was a very important person. Like her sister Myriam he was a Phoenix Knight, a professional hero who travelled all over the Empire to help people, battle monsters and keep the peace. He was gone from the island often, sometimes for several weeks at a time.

Roja was always happy when he returned. Often he would bring back fascinating gifts from his missions, like the scorpion. And he always tried to spend as much time as possible with Roja and her siblings.

This time he had been gone for nearly two months and Roja had missed him terribly. He shared her fascination for building things and listened to her with real interest, when she had discovered how something worked, and everyone else was bored out of their minds with her excited explanations.

Now she ran to him and he picked her up, whirled her in a circle, and then set her on his arm to kiss her nose. Then he grinned widely and rubbed at an oil smudge in the spot he had just kissed.

Roja grinned back just as happily.

"How was your mission?" she asked eagerly.

"Weird," he answered, sounding rather satisfied, "demons, intrigue, some bloodshed. It had everything a good mission needs. I will talk about it at dinner when everyone is there to listen."

Roja nodded. She was very curious to hear what her father had done this time, but it was much more fun to listen to his stories when the whole family was present.

Her father put her back down. "I came by to show you something," he said. "I have brought back something from the mission. It's… kind of a little friend I've made. I was hoping you might take care of him."

He picked up the bag he had put down at the door and opened it. The he reached inside and pulled out a little creature. It was about eight inches tall and had two arms and legs and a head, but that was where the similarity to a human stopped. It was light blue in colour and covered in a wavered blue aura. Its little face looked like it had been carved with little attention to detail. The eyes were dark spots, the nose a simple knob and the mouth a small slit. It had only three fingers on each hand and no toes at all.

"It's an imp," Roja's father explained. "His name is Kelvin. I brought him back with me because he needs a new home."

Roja had heard the word 'imp' before. They were the smallest kind of demons. Harmless creatures without much intelligence or will of their own. Demon lords kept huge hordes of them to take care of all sorts of unimportant tasks.

"Kelvin is very diligent and a sweet thing," Roja's father explained.

She had no doubt that the little Imp was harmless or her father wouldn't have brought him. Curiously she studied it and then gave a startled laugh when it - still standing on her father's hand - bowed deeply to her.

"He's also really polite," her father added cheerfully. "Kelvin, this is my daughter Roja."

"Mistress Roja." Kelvin bowed again.

"Do you think he could stay with you?" Roja's father asked.

"Absolutely." Roja nodded.

Of course she would provide a new home for the tiny creature. If her father thought he deserved it, then it had to be so. And Roja was very proud when she got a chance to help her father with something.

"I'll leave Kelvin with you then." Roja's father set the imp down on Roja's workbench and then leaned down to kiss her brow. "Thank you, my dear. I'll see you at dinner?"

Roja nodded, but her attention was already on the imp. He was standing on her workbench, looking around curiously. She didn't even notice when her father left.

"You will need a real home of your own," she declared. "You'll need a bed and... something like a den... a little house... where you can live."

Kelvin didn't look like he disapproved so Roja counted that as agreement. Some sort of big box would be could, she thought, ideally made of wood.

"Come on, we'll go ask Eve whether she has some supply crates we could use," she said aloud.

Eve was the hadonra of her father's island. She was quite strict, but she also always had an open ear for the kid's project as long as they were not planning any mischief.

Carefully Roja picked up the imp. Despite the fact that his aura looked quite fiery, he was cool to her touch. She set him down on her shoulder.

"If you hang on to my braid you won't fall down," she advised him.

Obediently Kelvin tightly gripped on to her thick braid.

Full of zest, Roja left her little workshop. It was located in a shed near the mansion and she now went over to the mansion. She could make out Eve between the large palm trees which shaded the yard next to the kitchen. She was hanging up the freshly washed laundry. Eve noticed her as well and watched her approach.

"Hello, Roja, is that another gift from your father?" she asked and curiously studied Kelvin, who was using Roja's braid to hide behind.

"This is Kelvin," Roja introduced the imp. "Dad has asked me to take care of him. I would like to build a small house for him," she immediately got to the point. "Do maybe have a wooden crate I could use?"

"Hm," Eve thoughtfully rubbed her chin. "I could give you one of the crates that the wine was delivered in last week. Let's have a look in the storage cellar. If you are lucky Shawn hasn't turned them into firewood yet."

Shawn was the caretaker of the island. He made sure the gardens stayed pretty and did all sorts of repairs. He was Roja's personal hero since he was always willing to give her advice on her project and lend her tools she was missing.

From the kitchen, stairs led down to the storage cellar. Roja loved the place. There were delicacies everywhere. Ham and sausages hung from the ceiling to dry next to sheaves of dried herbs. The shelves were filled with boxes cans and all sorts of well-sealed containers and bottles. There were larger crates and bags stacked on the floor as well. There were many supplies from the supermarket and markets, but plenty of self-made stuff. One long shelf held various bottles of wine and other drinks. there even were a few small caskets of beer. A real treasure room.

The cellar was never locked and generally Eve didn't mind when the kids came down here to get some snacks as long as they still ate properly at meal times.

Right next to the stairs several empty, large wooden crates were stacked. Exactly what Roja was looking for.

"There you go," Eve said and studied Kelvin. "What size will you need?"

"It should still fit on my workbench," Roja replied. "I don't want to put it on the floor. You never know when the pesky beasts poke their nose inside my shed and they might try to eat Kelvin."

The pesky beasts were a weird mix of small bear and rodent which were already living on the island before her father had moved here. They were nasty and aggressive, but had been largely scared away from the human inhabitants by the fact that Roja's other father, Teagan, occasionally hunted and ate them. Roja still considered them a threat to her new friend. It would be better to put his house in a safe place.

Eve took a small crate from the stack and pulled a medium sized one out.

"This one?" she asked.

The crate was built from solid boards. They were not put together seamlessly, leaving narrow cracks, but Roja considered that a boon. It would provide some ventilation for Kelvin's house. On the outside of the crate the logo of the wine trader was printed, but that would be easily fixed with a decent paint job. The size was perfect as well.

"Do you like it?" Roja asked the imp on her shoulder.

Kelvin looked at her, unsure. "Mistress Roja?"

"Do you think it will be large enough for you?" Roja corrected her question. Of course he wouldn't like it now since it still was quite ugly.

"Yes, Mistress Roja." The imp nodded.

"Very good." Eve took the crate down from the stack. "Do you want me to call Dominic to take it over to your workshop or are you taking it yourself?"

Dominic was Eve's son and the third and last servant on the island. He did everything that Eve and Shawn were too specialized to do.

"I think I can carry it myself, thank you," Roja replied. "Kelvin will just have to give me directions."

She picked up the crate. It wasn't very heavy but really bulky, blocking most of her view.

"Kelvin, climb onto the crate so you can tell me when I'm about to run into something." Roja ordered.

The little imp nimbly hopped from Roja's shoulder up onto the crate. Slowly and carefully they climbed up the stairs, manoeuvred through the kitchen, out the door and across the yard back to Roja's workshop. Kelvin had to help a bit with getting through the doors, but apart from that they safely arrived.

Roja put the crate down on the workbench and grinned at Kelvin happily. "I'll build you a great house in no time!" she promised the imp who nodded very seriously.

The next few hours Roja spent with her construction work. First she sawed a doorway into one side of the crate. From the sawed out piece she crafted a fitting door. The crate was painted green and then put in the yard to dry. Roja used that time to gather various items which would serve as furniture. An old bread basket with some kitchen towels were turned into a sleeping nest. The box she had been using to collect old screws was emptied and became a small chest to store Kelvin's belongings. Finally she built a small table and stool from some leftover pieces of wood.

When the crate had dried she carried it back to the workshop and screwed on the door. When the door was open there was nice light inside, when it was closed it was nicely dark so one could sleep.

Finally Roja cleared some space at the end of workbench and put Kelvin's new house into its proper place.

The imp had watched curiously the whole time and quickly started helping her by handing her the right tools. He picked up very quickly on what she needed when and was small enough never to be in the way.

"And? How do you like it?" Roja asked him nervously.

Kelvin blinked at her in surprise. He looked back and forth between her and the house a few times like he was just now realizing that it was meant for him.

"It is very beautiful, Mistress Roja," he said and bowed deeply. "Thank you very much for all the effort."

"Oh, that was nothing," Roja said quickly and blushed a bit.

She looked up at the clock over the door. Only a few minutes until the bell would ring for dinner. With a deep sigh she turned back to the mechanical scorpion which still sat huge and bulky and broken in the middle of her workshop.

Then she had an idea.

"Kelvin, you have really small hands. Please come over and have a look at this."

She put the imp down next to the opened access hatch in the back of the scorpion.

"Can you see that tiny gear down there? Under the rods and tubes?" she asked. "I can't reach it."

Kelvin nodded. "Yes, Mistress Roja."

"Can you reach it? It needs to be turned to the right."

Nimbly the imp climbed inside the scorpion and shimmed through the maze of rods and tubes until he could reach the gear. He had to twist a little, but he was able to reach it and carefully turned it until Roja told him to stop.

"Awesome!" Roja clapped her hands. "Thank you so much! Come on out and we'll test it."

When Kelvin had climbed back out, Roja restarted the scorpion and let it walk. It obediently walked forward in a straight line.

"Tada!" Roja grabbed Kelvin's tiny hand and shook it. "We make a great team!"


End file.
